Fertilizer Use Survey

4R Nutrient Stewardship is an integrated management program for on-farm nutrient application which works to increase production/profitability for farmers while enhancing environmental protection and improving sustainability. Canadian farmers have broadly adopted many of the practices of 4R Nutrient Stewardship, which include banding fertilizers, timing fertilizer application to maximize plant uptake, and using enhanced-efficiency fertilizers. The adoption of these practices not only benefits farmers’ productivity and profitability, but also the environment by reducing the potential for nutrient losses from the land.

Information on fertilizer management is crucial to understanding how Canadian crop production is performing in terms of productivity, greenhouse gas emissions and water quality impacts. However, there is no comprehensive data sets on fertilizer management practices at a national level. In order to quantify the impact of current practices, and identify strategies to make further improvements in fertilizer management practices, Canadian agricultural researchers, policy makers and representatives of the agriculture industry require information on the current state of fertilizer management in Canadian crop production.

A project has been developed to survey Canadian farmers for fertilizer management practices, with the goal of capturing baseline information for all grain, oilseed and pulse crops in Canada. The project started in 2014 with a survey of Western Canada (canola, spring wheat and peas) and Eastern Canada (corn and soybeans).

The survey results will be made available to those who have a password. Please contact Denis Tremorin at dtremorin@pulsecanada.com or (204) 925-3781to receive a password.